Funny thing this episode, Jaune remind me of Salem for a while and harostar is right, is kinda how ironwood come in some regard, as benevolent but smothering party.
It seen the whole alyxs is really doubling down ozpin words about who get the truth and who get to tell it, Alyxs on version(asuming is her) leave her at best a cleaver but annoying girl at worst, jaune pain her as salem 0,2, too much conflicting stuff here....
my theory? we will find lewis and he will tell you the truth or some truth(depending how strightfoward).
About yang: I will said is less the narrative focus less on them being sister and more ruby have being VERY out of focus for a while. Yang have her hand cut, was split from Ruby, have to deal with Raven, have to deal with her anger against Blake, having to deal against Adam, her distrust against Ozpin and so on.
Ruby....have being there, sure there is mentions here and there about her issue but from most part the narrative kinda bypass it focusing in other stuff and finally is letting her speak because Ruby is done and kinda want to stop all this and just run away.
In fact....I feel ruby and jaune this episode were pretty much raven and james.
"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"The whole point is that Yang hasn't been supportive, at all.
This isn't two siblings taking different paths because they're ultimately still on the same team and therefore they should all be supporting each other.
The whole point of Ruby's breakdown is that she's succumbing to the The Chains of Commanding; everyone just assumes she has everything under control and never really tried to reach out to her besides some half hearted attempts.
Its just really egregious with Yang since she's Ruby's older sister. And it's not like they're estranged either. Especially after what they went through in their childhood, so its particularly weird how distant they've become as its not like anything really drove them apart.
Part of Yang's motivation after V3 was to support and protect Ruby, but more attention had been put on her and Blake's romance.
Edited by BlackYakuzu94 on Apr 1st 2023 at 7:40:03 AM
A lazy millennial who's good at what he does.![]()
I think you hit the nail on the head, in terms of how the narrative has kind of....focused on the traumas and pain of everyone but Ruby. And that I think has been the point, because until now Ruby has been charging forward and she's been the one everyone kinda leaned on. She's someone that has internalized so much for her entire life, and learned to not draw attention to herself, and focused on everything but herself.
Everyone else was having breakdowns pre-Beacon. Ruby was charging ahead, focused on her goal, and how she's the leader and that meant "it's not about me" as she told Jaune back in Volume 1 (and he threw back in her face this episode).
Now they're in a world where they don't get to keep avoiding things. Where the world itself seems tailored to not let them move forward, until they've worked through their central problems involving themselves.
Where the only reason Jaune's avoided dealing with his problems for so long, was because he was staying with/projecting on to an entire village of Extreme Doormat types that were physically too weak and too nice to refuse him. Until everyone else showed up, he could keep running in circles and projecting and going slowly insane.
Now Ruby and Jaune are both snapping, and screaming out that they are not okay. So now we have three episodes to deal with things, now that the crisis is out in the open.
I have to disagree with the idea Yang hasn't been supportive or that she's been "cold". Like...did we not have a scene last volume of the sisters sitting together, talking about Summer, and touching on Ruby's doubts about herself? They were interrupted by the crisis with Penny, but it's only been like...a few days since Yang and Ruby sat down together in the entry hall of Schnee Manor and talked privately with Yang comforting her sister both physically and emotionally.
Yes, Yang's storyline has been focused on her growing relationship with Blake. So that was the focus of many of her scenes, since that was the big thing being developed for them. But that doesn't mean Yang has ignored, neglected, or been cold towards Ruby. (Beyond, obviously, their argument at the start of volume 8 which saw them leading separate teams for a bit. But they worked it out, and we how happy they were when they reunited.)
I think this volume, Ruby's less dramatic response in comparison to Blake's was in line with her growing trauma response. Seeing Yang "die" protecting her set her off, and she's been in this kind of numbed state since. And then she passed out upon learning Penny died.
Edited by harostar on Apr 1st 2023 at 7:59:08 AM
Granted, hard to know how much that is deliberate and how much is writer just forgotting about her, specially when they split narratives, the fact they reunited right away here let me to belive they learn their lession last time about wasting time.
So it is a sort of glassh half-full, half-empthy here.
Now, its intersting how much jaune and ruby spat kinda doged penny death, is hard to know if it a secret or they just avoid the painfull elephant in the room. But Ruby did the raven thing of "who care about your stupid romance or you stupid breakdown, who give a shit" she is lowering everyone so it can sunk to the level she is now while Jaune is channeling james in a "if your stupid plan that let us to this problem", for someone who keep calm back in volume 7 and 8(one of the few who did it actually) he is one step of saying "your terrible leadership have me kill penny".
There is too much to unpack here.
"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"Also, Ruby's plan with Ambrosius wasn't terrible, and I vehemently disagree with people insisting that it was.
Like, there's a difference between a plan being terrible, and the plan not surviving contact with the enemy.
Like, if Penny had actually followed Ruby's plan, then she would not be dead and Salem wouldn't have the relic of creation. When Cinder attacked, they told her to go on ahead, and she did not.
So no matter how much people want to insist Jaune was right to chew Ruby out in this episode, I think that he was definitely wrong about that.
Edited by GNinja on Apr 1st 2023 at 12:26:16 PM
Kaze ni Nare!Ruby and Jaune are both hurt and are just lashing out in anger, especially Jaune since he's been stewing in his misery for decades, they didn't really the stuff they said, they just wanted to vent their frustrations
"We'll meet again" | 🏳️⚧️![]()
Ruby plan have the same problems with amity: it have gaps that the enemy can exploit and its betting too much in everything going well.
Except the plan wasnt JUST the people, it was all the people, it was having the relic and it was saving penny, hell even maybe james and jacques too(I dont belive they will let those two die).
it try for a maximalist aproach and they fail quiet some objective, hell they are not dead because they didnt know they will fall into ever after and now they are lost, incomunicated and Salem is closer to ever before to achive their objective(which if she does, would make saving the people quite irrelevant).
it wasnt a total lose but it was a defeat.
I dont know, I feel they meant but dont totally mean what they said: Ruby is annoyed everyone is taking so well after falling and just wanting trying out again and jaune is kinda upset she just call "make belive friends" the people he have being protecting for so long when the the plan falling wasnt his to begin with.
What I mean is that they dont want to hurt the other but is anger that being there.
Edited by unknowing on Apr 1st 2023 at 8:33:44 AM
"My Name is Bolt, Bolt Crank and I dont care if you believe or not"What could they have even done to prepare for Cinder?
I'm thinking maybe they could have made it so that the portals wouldn't work for Cinder and her crew, but wouldn't that require them to have a reference to give Ambrosius? Do they even have a picture of Cinder? Would a drawing of her work?
Because they couldn't possibly vet every single person coming in and out of Mantle/Atlas, and they reacted to Cinder pretty appropriately. They told Penny to go on ahead to secure the Maiden Powers and the Relic, and then moved to intercept her right away. Then after all the citizens were through to Vacuo, Jaune asked Nora to go and bring back every Huntsman she could find to help fight Cinder.
So the main flaw in their plan was the Literal Genie shenanagains of Ambrosius. And remember, due to Ironwood's ultimatum, they had less than an hour to come up with, prepare, and execute this entire plan.
Edited by GNinja on Apr 1st 2023 at 1:50:46 PM
Kaze ni Nare!![]()
![]()
Ruby did know Cinder was still alive by the time they were making portals. IIRC it was her who commented that it was Cinder who had left the chess piece in Ironwood's office because she recognized it was made of glass.
That and RWBY getting incredibly arrogant and sloppy from everything working out at that point.
Edited by doineedaname on Apr 1st 2023 at 9:50:56 AM
Ultimately, their plan would have worked, if it hadn't been quite literally countered by the use of another Relic.
This was really our first glimpse of what can happen with Relic vs Relic, as well as effectively vs ineffectively making use of them. And also the difference in the attitude of the Spirits, and how that could help or hinder you. Which raises some questions about what we may see in the future, depending on who ends up with which Relics and how effectively they get used.
(I still maintain that Cinder killing Watts is going to end up biting them in the ass, as he was likely the best candidate to effectively use the Staff. An engineer is the ideal person to use something like the Staff, since it relies on being very specific and very, very detailed to avoid problems.)
![]()
I wish I had the post that brought it to mind for me bookkmarked because the site's search for forum posts is terrible, I think there was a post (by Wyldchyld maybe, I know I just remember it was one of the thread regulars) about how the way they made their request after everything worked with Penny was just entirely arrogant and flippant with how they handled Ambrosisus, with Yang expressly going "Let's try the quick version, can you" and rattling off their request.
Really wish the site had a better search function so I could find the actual post from months ago.
He was by far the most competent member of Salem's crew in general. The fact that she changed her mind about leaving him to die in volume 8 speaks volumes. Watts wasn't much of a fighter, but he was by only one besides Salem who was able to remain focused on the big picture, which (in cases where he could actually get them to listen) made him very good at keeping Cinder's ego and Tyrian's bloodlust in check.
Anyway, another week, another episode. Ruby is not okay, and I am totally here for it. My suspicion is that She's going to try and grab Neo. She'll succeed in doing that next episode, just in time for JWBY to catch up to her, and react with suitable horror when she shares her plan to bring Neo along as a Human Sacrifice just in case Jaune's right about thet tree. That...probably won't be the case if they raise that possibility, but her committing herself to killing a captured enemy in cold blood is just the right level of darkness.
Edited by CaptainCapsase on Apr 1st 2023 at 10:29:45 AM
Yeah but that was well before they made their plans, Cinder had popped up a couple of times after that and lost two fights to Penny (lol).
But neither of them were in ways that should have made the characters think she was dead.
Did Cinder even really need the relic though? I've been thinking about it, since Cinder was still in Atlas and they created portals for everyone in Atlas to evacuate... wouldn't she have just found out either way.
All Cinder did to foil their plan was enter the tunnels and attack them.
Edited by Saiga on Apr 1st 2023 at 8:15:03 AM

i've been rewatching the season, and I will say that anytime someone has tried to reach out to Ruby, even when it hasn't been enough, it's been Yang.
Edited by GNinja on Apr 1st 2023 at 11:25:28 AM
Kaze ni Nare!